Many have described Ledecky as one of the greatest athletes in the world right now, and so it may not sound that surprising to hear that – yet again – she set a world record. This afternoon, Ledecky plans on getting her rest. She was also part of the winning relay, and captured the 400-meter freestyle, at the 2015 World University Games.
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Bethesda’s Katie Ledecky smashed her own world record in the women’s 400-meter freestyle Sunday, winning her first gold medal at the Rio games a day after winning a silver medal as part of the US 4×100-meter freestyle relay team.
Ledecky, the freestyle phenom from Bethesda, Maryland, won her first gold medal of these Games, torching the field in the final of the 400 free at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium with a stunning time of 3:56.46 to win by almost five seconds over Britain’s Jazz Carlin.
“It [her stroke] feels good. So she is improving so much and I think she is just trying to push that barrier, and I think it’s pretty exciting to watch her do that”. Then he balanced himself atop a lane rope, spread his arms wide and looked toward the roof of the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.
Jazz Carlin took the silver medal on a great night for British swimmers, minutes after Adam Peaty had won gold in the 100 meters breaststroke. She beat Great Britain’s Jazz Carlin by nearly five seconds while teammate Leah Smith won the bronze medal.
If you’ve been keeping up on Ledecky’s career since she won gold in the 800-meter freestyle in 2012, last night’s world-record smashing performance in the 400-meter freestyle wasn’t a huge shock.
Katie Ledecky has a chance to make Olympic history by bringing home even more gold for Team USA.
Mark it down. This is going to be a Katie Ledecky Olympics.
It wasn’t just the Americans providing the fireworks at the Olympic pool Sunday.
Britain’s Peaty set his second world record in consecutive days, and seemed surprised by the margin of his victory – 1.56 seconds – over defending champion Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa.
Plus, many of today’s world records are set on courses that are designed for optimal race conditions. She has already won the 400m version of the discipline in world record time.
Bob Bowman, Phelps’ personal coach and also the coach of the US men’s team in Rio, put Phelps on the second leg, with Caeleb Dressel leading off, Ryan Held swimming the third leg and Nathan Adrian anchoring. Her opponents studied Ledecky’s wake.
Her best at the moment isn’t anywhere close to the form she showed four years ago. The world-record holder in the event, at this point the 19-year-old from suburban Maryland is racing against herself.
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This was her first Olympic medal, after she finished fourth in the 100 fly at the London Games four years ago, missing out on the bronze by just 23-hundredths of a second.
